Yesterday, 16 October, there was a short debate in the House of Lords on humanist weddings. Baroness Thornton asked the Government whether they planned to give legal recognition to humanist weddings, to which Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice, replied:

“The Government understand humanists’ strength of feeling about legally recognising humanist weddings. I know that this strength of feeling extends to many within this House. As a new Government, we must look closely at the details of any proposed changes before setting out our position, which we will do in due course”.

Bs Thornton pointed out that in 2020, the High Court had ruled (in R (Harrison & Ors) v Secretary of State for Justice [2020] EWHC 2096 (Admin) at [111]) that the failure to provide humanist marriages in England and Wales was discriminatory and the Government could not simply “sit on its hands” and do nothing – to which Lord Ponsonby responded, not unreasonably, that

“the previous Government chose not to respond to the Law Commission report, and we believe that, as a new, incoming Government, we should give ourselves time to respond in as wide a context as possible”.

In response to Lord Desai, the Minister said that there were other groups that would claim special beliefs that they would want to be reflected in potential secondary legislation and

“We do not think that is the way to go. We think we need to look at the question in the round, and that is what the Government intend to do.”

Lord Dobbs pointed out from the Conservative benches that legalising humanist weddings was Labour policy and the law in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Jersey and asked about the Government’s timescale for reform – to which Lord Ponsonby replied:

“My Lords, unfortunately, the timescale is ‘in due course’. Nevertheless, there is a commitment to look at this and to look at the question in the round … there are other groups that also believe they are special, and they want special recognition—Sharia wives might be one such group. We do not want to legislate by secondary legislation; we do not think that is appropriate in this example. That is why we will take our time and come back with a considered view.”

The Bishop of Sheffield observed that

“… on these Benches we would welcome humanist wedding ceremonies being given legal status, but the recommendations of the Law Commission go beyond that and would create a free market celebrant-based approach to the wedding industry. I gather that Humanists UK shares our concern that such a move could undermine the solemn nature of marriage, which is never a trivial transaction.

Given this unlikely alliance between the Lords Spiritual and Humanists UK, can the Minister confirm that the Government will not enact the recommendations of the Law Commission without considering carefully the impact of a further commercialisation of weddings?”

Perhaps the most critical point was made by Lord Keen of Elie, a former Conservative Advocate General for Scotland, who said that the fundamental issue was that the law of marriage in England was based upon the place of the celebration and not the identity of the celebrant, and there was no point in making piecemeal reforms to that basic law:

“It is therefore time, is it not, for the Government to address the key recommendation of the Law Commission to move from the emphasis on building to the emphasis on celebrant? That is not going to open up a free market in marriage; it will simply ensure that particular groups may be able to qualify as celebrants of a ceremony going forward.”

With which Lord Ponsonby agreed.

Comment

In fairness to the present Government, it is barely three or four months into what everyone expects to be a five-year term, and the complexity of the current law on weddings in England and Wales is such that Ministers can hardly be blamed for choosing to get settled in their roles before making a considered response to the Law Commission’s report. But the question remains: registration of celebrants rather than buildings works perfectly well in Scotland and Northern Ireland – pace the Bishop of Sheffield, “a free market celebrant-based approach” – so why not in England and Wales? And there remains the problem of religious groups who either do not have buildings that they can register or whose tradition is for wedding ceremonies to be conducted out of doors.

So watch this space yet again – and see Russell Sandberg: Labour Peer Gives Welcome Update on Marriage Law Reform.

FC & DP

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Cite this article as: Frank Cranmer and David Pocklington, “The House of Lords debates humanist weddings again” in Law & Religion UK, 17 October 2024, https://lawandreligionuk.com/2024/10/17/the-house-of-lords-debates-humanist-weddings-again/